¡¡¡¡Still-older men have lost their dignity and rattle on unabashedly. Often, wives and children play important roles in their fat-inspection rituals. Take my oldest brother, a former college football player. His daughter says that several times a day he will stand at attention and call out, "Fat, medium or thin?" She knows the correct answer: medium. Thin would be an obvious stretch, and fat may not get her that new video. According to his wife, he stands in front of the mirror in the morning (before the day's meals take their toll), puts his hands behind his head and lurches into a side bend, then clutches the roll that has developed and says, "Am I getting fatter?" His wife is expected to answer, "You look like you may have lost a few pounds."
¡¡¡¡And then there are the ex-husbands, a pitiful group. They are extremely vocal. When I go to the movies with one, he confides that he is suffering from great hunger because he is dieting. He hasn't eaten since the pancakes and sausages he wolfed down that morning. He pauses in his monologue while he buys his popcorn. After the movie, we sprint to a restaurant, where he again pauses to devour a basket of bread. Before he orders his chaste salad and soup, he grows plaintive. Do I think he's fat?
1. Men of a certain age are always ready to talk about their fat problem.
A. Right
B. Wrong
C. Not mentioned

2. Women of a certain age do not discuss the fat problem, especially in the presence of men.
A. Right
B. Wrong
C. Not mentioned

3. Men usually begin to worry about their weight when they are nearly 40.
A. Right
B. Wrong
C. Not mentioned

4. The journalist used to drink Diet Coke and tuck his shirts in order to keep trim.
A. Right
B. Wrong
C. Not mentioned

5. Men older than the journalist never hesitate to talk about their fat problem yet would be displeased if their family members tell them the truth.
A. Right
B. Wrong
C. Not mentioned

6. My oldest brother's daughter would not tell her father he is fat because she loves him so much that she cannot bear to upset him.
A. Right
B. Wrong
C. Not mentioned

7. The ex-husbands are pitiful because they have got no wives to sympathize with their fat problem.
A. Right
B. Wrong
C. Not mentioned


KEY: AABBABC



PASSAGE 11

Too polite for Words

¡¡¡TA Japanese colleague the other day was talking about a meeting with a man whom she abruptly described using the English word "jerk". I thought she was toning down her Japanese for my benefit, so I asked her how to say "jerk" in Japanese.
¡¡¡¡"There's no such word." she answered helplessly. "we have to use 'jerk' ". Heaven knows it's not as if there are no jerks in Japan. But the Japanese language is just not made for sniping at people. At first, I thought maybe my Japanese teachers had been too polite to teach me the real lingo, so watched to see what Japanese drivers would say to each other after a accident. It turned out that they say: "I'm sorry." Gradually I came to realize that there is perhaps no language so ill suited to invective as Japanese. Linguistically, these guys are wimps.
¡¡¡¡Take the vicious Japanese insult "kisama," which is deeply offensive. It means "your honorable self." That's right. Instead of using all kinds of dirty words, the Japanese insult each other by frowning and growing: "Your honorable self."
¡¡¡¡Likewise, a nasty expression for a woman is "ana," another term not to try with the nice woman at the sushi restaurant. But literally it means "nun" Sure, sarcasm may be intended, but still most women would probably prefer to be characterized as a nun than as a female dog.

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